After being anointed as the chief campaign manager of the Congress (read PM candidate), Rahul Gandhi made a valiant attempt to electrify his rather depressed leaders and cadres at Delhi indoor Talkatora stadium in a charged speech that emphasised the gains of the party and laid out a vague road map for the party.

Rahulâ€™s fire and brimstone speech came after Sonia Gandhiâ€™s characteristic low decibel speech in which she said that the next election would be the â€œa battle between competing ideologies, conflicting views of the history and a different vision for the future... it will be a battle for Indiaâ€.

The overhanging debate among Congress leaders at the session was whether the Congress should dare the BJP by announcing Rahul as the PM candidate, which Sonia Gandhi refused to do.

But Rahul proved that he is already a PM by demanding government subsidy for 12 cylinders instead of the 9 now, a demand which was met with abject approval by petroleum minister Veerappa Moily who promptly announced the hike in subsidy.

But Rahulâ€™s speech tried to make up for the lack of grandeur of a PM candidate and attacked BJP and Modi. He said that a change is taking place in the country and the party needs to meet the aspiration of the common man who wants a new deal. There was nothing in his speech to show that he feared the rise of the Aam Admi Party which has almost stolen the â€œcommon manâ€ party plank away from the Congress not just in name but by capturing Delhi after demolishing the Congress.

Despite Rahulâ€™s brave attempt which carried on from his first big speech at the Jaipur AICC session (see box) a general sense of dismay was visible among the cadres and state-level leaders assembled at the Talkatora stadium. The normal view is that the party will find it difficult to get more than 100 seats. Others said the Congress always went into the last two elections with a loser tag but won.

The Congress also positioned itself as the custodian of secular values and Rahul said the BJP believed in lighting communal fires. The party had skirted the issue of communalism at the Jaipur session last year by focussing instead on governance to attract in middle class and youth but at Talkotora has taken on the anti-communal party plan to target the BJP om candidate Narendra Modi.

In the middle of all this, prime minister Manmohan Singh already reduced in might and stature tried to make his presence felt by announcing the great strides in the last 10 years of the UPA rule and complained that the government did not get any credit for the achievements.

Rahulâ€™s evolution in one year
1 In Jaipur, Rahul Gandhi targeting the VVIP culture said, â€œThey (youth) are angry because they are alienated and excluded from the political class. They watch from the sideline as the powerful drive around in their lal battis.

In Delhi, no mention of eliminating the VVIP culture, even though the party got drubbing in Delhi, largely due to arrogance of its leaders and AAPâ€™s abhorrence of VVIP culture.

2 In Jaipur, besides youth, he targeted the middle class, by raising issues of governance. â€œWhy are people angry. Because they are alienated from the system. Their voices are trampled upon. All our systems â€“ justice, education, political, administration â€“ are designed to keep people with knowledge out. Mediocrity dominates discussions,â€ he said. He offered a searing critique of the nationâ€™s poor governance setup. He also took aim at the leaders India taps, arguing that the best informed people arenâ€™t always those who end up in powerful positions.

In Delhi, focus shifted to those between below poverty line and middle class. They are about 70 crore in number. He announced plans for this section of the society.

3 In Jaipur, he promised democratisation of party and ending role of people with connections.
In Delhi, no mention of this, except to experiment in 15 chosen Lok Sabha seats, where tickets will be distributed after conducting a referendum locally amongst party cadres and workers.

4 In Jaipur, he sent a message that those who have lost elections with gap of over 15,000 votes will not be given ticket. He said Congress would not give ticket to criminals.

In Delhi, no mention of these promises. In fact, they were violated, when tickets were distributed in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh.

It indicate, as one commentator had said in a TV debate last night, that the Govt is run on the diktats of one family and that is being proved true.

Why blame AAP for populism?

The only blame that AAP's populism can be attributed for is that they have scared the poltical parties so badly that it has become essential for all to ape the AAP's populism.

It is on no use of the Congress Party to raise the same issues as the sole reason why one should vote for the Congress. It has become hackneyed and gives a very tired and worn out image of the Congress Party

On NDTV even ardent supporters like Aarati Jeyrath was critical, while another staunch Congress supporter Kumar Ketkar came out appearing like a crow caught in the rain shaking itself dry.

It is time that the Congress Party is more forceful, but the baggage of corruption that they have made legend during UPA II will be very hard to shake off and Rahul Gandhi and the Congress claim that they are the vanguards against corruption with many bills pending etc will look a bit hypocritical and sound hollow.

Rahul Gandhi's attempt to step aside from the corruptions of the Congress Party and show he is beyond the Congress Party and has no truck with UPA is amazing, if not ridiculously pantomime!

If young Gandhi was really serious about his fight against corruption than could we hear something from him about his brother in law, Rabart?

The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs will take up next week a proposal to increase the annual cap of subsidised LPG cylinders from nine to 12, something that is bound to displease global rating agencies that are closely watching Indiaâ€™s fiscal deficit.

If the government raises the cap, it will put an additional burden of Rs.3,300 to Rs.5,800 crore, or 9 per cent of the budget estimate for total petroleum subsidy, on the exchequer. The outgo will reflect in next yearâ€™s fiscal deficit as the subsidy for petroleum products for the last quarter is always paid in the first quarter of the new fiscal year. This means it will be left to the new government after the Lok Sabha election to find the resources to foot the additional bill on account of Fridayâ€™s announcement on enhanced quota.

The decision to raise the LPG cap signals a weakening of the resolve to cut inefficient subsidies. In May 2013, Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram had told reporters after discussions in New Delhi with global ratings agency Moodyâ€™s that its representatives had sought details of the steps taken by the Government to check the subsidy bill and its fall-out on the fiscal deficit. Mr. Mayaram had said: â€œ...itâ€™s not as if the picture is fully rosy... We have said that we know there are problems but ...the government is fully committed to take action so that the problems that we are seeing today are fully addressed.â€

The meetings so far had raised confidence of the agencies in India as the Government had taken a number of tough policy measures including deregulation of diesel prices and pruning of subsidies on domestic LPG cylinders, fertilizer and sugar.

Under the nine subsidised LPG cylinder regime 89.2 per cent of the 15 crore LPG consumers are covered. The remaining 10 per cent buy the additional requirement at the market price.

If the quota is raised to 12, about 97 percent of the consumers would be covered by subsidised LPG. Consumers who have already exhausted their quota and would have had to buy LPG at the market price of Rs. 1,258 per cylinder will now get relief in shape of three extra subsidised cylinders in the remainder of the financial year. Subsidised LPG costs Rs. 414 per 14.2-kg cylinder in Delhi.

The quota of LPG subsidised cylinders was raised from six to nine in January last year.